Accessing your email using an email program or from a smartphone or tablet
As well as using webmail, you can also set up your BT email to be used with an email program (like Outlook or Mail for Mac) or via a smartphone or tablet computer. This means you'll be able to read your emails without having to log in.
BT's email service is compatible with most email programs, smartphones and tablets, but some older versions may not be supported.
Setting up an email program or device to receive your BT email is generally quick and easy. Although we don't offer support for setting things up, you should be able to get help and advice from within your email program, or from the manufacturer of your smartphone or tablet.
To set up your email account you'll need:
- The incoming and outgoing server settings
- Your BT email address or username
- The password for your BT email address
There are two different ways to set up your BT email on an email program, smartphone or tablet. We recommend you use IMAP with SSL enabled. This means that everything you do remotely will be reflected in your BT email account no matter where or how you access it. Enabling SSL will also ensure that all the data exchanged between your email program and the server is encrypted, making it almost impossible for anyone to steal your username or password. If you sometimes use public wi-fi then we would strongly recommend enabling SSL.
Alternatively, you can use POP. With POP your email program, smartphone or tablet is not synchronised. This means that whatever changes you make in your email program will not be reflected in your BT email account. Learn more about IMAP and POP >
What are the settings for outgoing and incoming mail servers?
Before you start
If you've already got an email program set up or use a mobile device or tablet to access your email, it's very important to be sure you know which way you are accessing them (that is, whether you're using IMAP or POP).
Remember, with POP your email program, smartphone or tablet is not synchronised. If you therefore delete a POP account, you could lose emails that are only stored on your email program, mobile device or tablet.
You can check which method you're using by opening up your email program, highlighting the mail account you want to find out about, then opening its settings or properties. Look to see whether the Mail Server "type" is set to IMAP or POP.
IMAP
- Incoming Mail Server: mail.btinternet.com
- Port: 993 (this should be automatically populated if you tick the SSL Encryption)
- SSL Encryption: Enabled (but not STARTTLS)
- Username: your email address including the @btinternet or @btopenworld.com part
- Password: your btinternet password
- Root folder/path:
- Folder separator: . (full stop)
Please do NOT enable "secure password authentication" (SPA). It's not needed when you use SSL encryption and won't work. If your IMAP client supports it, we recommend you also set up the following folders:
- Trash
- Sent Items
- Drafts
POP3
- Server: mail.btinternet.com
- Port: 995 (this should be automatically populated when you tick SSL Encryption)
- SSL Encryption: Enabled (but not STARTTLS)
- Username: your email address including the @btinternet or @btopenworld.com part
- Password: your btinternet password
- POP from folder: By default, POP will pull emails from your Inbox
SMTP
- Outgoing Mail Server: mail.btinternet.com
- Port: 465 (this may not be automatically populated on selection of SSL, so you'll need to check this)
- SSL Encryption: Enabled (but not STARTTLS)
- Authentication: PLAIN
- Username: your email address including the @btinternet or @btopenworld.com part
- Password: your btinternet password
In addition to this and to protect our service from abuse by spammers, we only allow our email servers to be used by our customers. We do this by insisting that all emails sent through our email service have SMTP authentication to prove where they came from. Setting up an email program and enabling SMTP authentication is easy. You usually switch it on by ticking a box called "My server requires authentication" in your email programs settings.
If you need more help with setting up your email on a computer program or mobile device please see this help article, How do I setup BT email on my computer or mobile device?
Cheers Sean
